HPV Country Profile

192

cases in 2018

125

deaths in 2018

The HPV vaccine is currently not included in Lebanon's national immunization program.

Description

HPV

General Information

Human Papillomavirus

Burden of HPV infection

In Lebanon, about 2.3% of women in the general population are estimated to have HPV type 16 or 18 at a given time, which causes approximately 72.4% of invasive cervical cancers in the country. One study showed that 30.7% of women have HPV, and another showed that HPV type 16 was the most common subtype.1,4

Burden of cervical cancer

Cervical cancer, caused by HPV, is the twelfth leading cause of cancer deaths in women in Lebanon, causing at least 125 deaths annually among the population of 2.3 million Lebanese women aged 15 years and older who are at risk for the disease.1,2 Between 2012 and 2018, the number of deaths every year due to cervical cancer nearly tripled (42 in 2012 to 125 in 2018), and if decisive action is not taken at the national level, annual deaths due to the disease will increase by a factor of 1.62 by 2040, reaching 202 deaths per year.3 In Lebanon, at least 192 women are newly diagnosed with cervical cancer each year.

5.7 per 100,000 women in Lebanon contract cervical cancer annually and 3.6 per 100,000 Lebanese women die due to cervical cancer each year. Among countries in the MENA region (as defined by UNAIDS), Lebanon’s death and incidence rates due to cervical cancer are about average. For example, Somalia and Morocco have the highest incidence and mortality rates, with 24.0 and 17.2 women per 100,000 being newly diagnosed with cervical cancer annually and at least 21.9 and 12.6 women per 100,000 dying due to cervical cancer per year, respectively. Whereas Iran, Iraq and Yemen have the lowest (around 2 per 100,000 women are diagnosed per year and about 1 per 100,000 die because of cervical cancer annually).2

Maatouk, Ismaël, and Khalil Abdo. “Human Papillomavirus Prevalence in the Oral Cavity of Men Who Have Sex with Men: A Study of Its First from Beirut, Lebanon.” Sexual Health, vol. 13, no. 4, June 2016, pp. 397–99, doi:10.1071/SH16045.

The annual number of deaths from cervical cancer, caused by the human papilloma virus (HPV), has tripled in the last five years. Based on data from the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) published in GLOBCAN 2018. Deaths from cervical can

“The chances are high for HPV infections to progress into cervical cancer,” said Zaki. Cervical cancer is not as prominent in the national conversation as other forms of cancer are. “it is a problem because people only associate penetrative sex to increas